International Crypto Campaign

This is the home page of an international campaign aimed at
influencing the cryptography policy outcome from the next major round
of the Wassenaar Arrangement Export Controls for Conventional Arms and
Dual-Use Goods and Technologies.

The campaign is focusing on lobbying the respective governments from as
many as possible of the 33 Wassenaar nations.

There have been media releases announcing the
release of the Statement [AU] [CA] [FR] [UK] [US].

GILC Member Cyber-Rights
& Cyber-Liberties (UK) have released a paper
which presents details on why cryptography should be
removed from the Wassenaar Arrangement, argued in terms of the
purposes of the Wassenaar Arrangement itself.

Crypto exports from Australia are regulated in accordance with the
Wassenaar Arrangement, as they are in the other 32 nations who are
signatory to the Arrangement.
The Wassenaar Arrangement is a codification of strategic export controls.
The text of the Arrangement is available at <http://www.parrhesia.com/wassenaar>,
and the Wassenaar Secretariat has its own website at <http://www.wassenaar.org>.

Some nations, namely Australia, New Zealand, USA, France and
Russia, go further than is required under Wassenaar and restrict
general purpose cryptography software as dual-use goods.
The Wassenaar Arrangement has had a significant impact on cryptography
export controls and there seems little doubt that some of the Nations
represented will seek to use the next round to move towards a more
repressive cryptography export control regime.

EFA has been researching the policy position Australia is likely to take
to the next round of discussions on Wassenaar.
It appears that the Australian representative will propose that:

Crypto using 40-bit keys should no longer be controlled (hardly a
significant concession!).

The scope of the General Software Note, which excludes shrink wrapped
and public domain software from export control, to be narrowed so that
crypto software is no longer exempted.

Intangible exports, i.e. via the Internet, be brought under the
Wassenaar umbrella.
Currently only the US controls the export of intangibles.

EFA is totally opposed to the Australian government stance because of
the adverse impact these proposals will have on electronic commerce,
and on the security of private and commercial communications.
EFA is working with others on an international basis to make sure
that as many national representatives as possible are fully briefed on
the impact of the existing controls and the proposed amendments.
The campaign is lobbying for the removal of crypto export controls
from the Wassenaar Arrangement.

The next round of Wassenaar talks will take place in Vienna.
It is likely to have an 'experts group' meeting in September followed by a
plenary session in November.

We are developing a concerted international input to the next round
bearing in mind that there are 33 countries represented in Wassenaar:

The campaign is developing contacts in each of the above countries who
are co-ordinating actions to seek government positions on
Wassenaar to remove all controls on cryptography.
National coordinator contact details and other country information is
available on the country information page.

We are keen to contact people/organisations in countries where we do
not yet have a national coordinator, and for people to work with the
national coordinators in all of the Wassenaar nations.
Anyone who wants to help with this International Campaign
should get in touch.

If you have contacts who might be in a position to take up this cause
we would be most grateful if you would forward this introduction and have
them send their names and email addresses to "Michael Baker"
<[email protected]>.